Is Lenin relevant in our age of catastrophes?
The Lenin 100 volunteers report on the lecture given by Paul Le Blanc, academic and author of “Lenin Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution”, opening the Lenin 100 series.
100s recently attended the first online lecture as part of the Lenin 100 series, introduced by the acclaimed US writer, historian and activist Paul Le Blanc.
In the talk, Paul Le Blanc made an impressive case for the importance of Lenin’s ideas to overturning capitalism and imperialism in a world defined by crises. Applying Lenin’s steadfast focus on expanding the workers’ movement and growing class consciousness to the world today, Le Blanc urged the rebirth of a global socialist movement capable of averting climate catastrophe and ending the era of permanent war, positioning Lenin not just as a historical figure worthy of study, but a cutting-edge revolutionary whose ideas are of enduring relevance.
Vital to understanding Le Blanc’s ideas is that he sees Lenin as a pivotal figure not only in the history of the modern communist movement and the Russian Revolution, but indeed the history of the whole 20th century.
As we confront imperialist wars, climate catastrophe, and the rise of right-wing authoritarians like Trump and Modi, Le Blanc posed the thought-provoking question to the audience of ‘What would Lenin do?’
Nonetheless, he cautioned against treating Lenin’s analysis as dogma and warned clearly against viewing Marxist theory as a “passive contemplation” of societal injustices. Instead, it must be seen as a guide to action, grounded in historical materialism – in Le Blanc’s own words, “Lenin refused to detach social, economic, and political analysis from an activist engagement, from the restless and insistent question: what is to be done?”
He then went on to consider how Lenin’s focus on building working class consciousness, the mass workers’ movement and socialist currents lines up with the modern world, with so many working-class institutions eroded after decades of neo-liberalism,
Interestingly, Le Blanc rejected the reductive opposition some economistic elements on the Left of “class” versus “identity.”
Instead, quoting the legendary biographer of Malcolm X, US socialist George Breitman, he highlighted that the relevance for class politics in the 21st century comes from integrating both, saying: “The radicalization of the worker can begin off the job as well as on. It can begin from the fact that the worker is a woman as well as a man; that the worker is Black or Chicano or a member of some other oppressed minority as well as white; that the worker is a father or mother whose son can be drafted; that the worker is young as well as middle-aged or about to retire. If we grasp the fact that the working class is stratified and divided in many ways – the capitalists prefer it that way – then we will be better able to understand how the radicalization will develop among workers and how to intervene more effectively.”
Nonetheless, he did not shy away from acknowledging the scale of the challenge facing socialists in our current age of catastrophe, recognising that “Our own daunting task of recreating a global mass socialist movement will have to occur in an era of catastrophe – the destabilisation and unravelling of the global environment and a consequent wave of economic calamities and mass fatalities.”
Solidarity with campaigns rooted in social justice – often with the advancing of transitional demands relating to them – such as the Black Lives Matter movement and international actions against the Israeli slaughter in Gaza, are in fact key to re-building the workers’ movement, and growing class consciousness, in the period ahead.
We need to understand that it is through such campaigns that masses are mobilised and radicalised as workers find out that their mass pressure can force reform and change lives.
Le Blanc also drew a clear and interesting parallel between Lenin’ struggles with “super-militant” Bolshevik’s intent on isolating the party from mass electoral activity and reform campaigns, and contemporary leftists “scoffing at reform where revolution is needed”.
Also central to Le Blanc’s presentation was also a recognition that impending climate catastrophe will become increasingly central to socialist efforts throughout the world – and that a real, socialist Green New Deal is necessary to our survival.
He argued that such a transitional approach combines multiple goals, and can be key to our success, saying “people before profit, decent homes and good communities for all, health care for all, education for all, mass transit and communication systems for all, nourishing food, access to cultural and recreational nourishment, creative outlets, genuine liberty and real justice for all” our the demands we must be making,
We give the final words to our speaker. Closing the event, he argued that “As we strive to advance that process, there is much to learn from the ideas, the insights, and the experiences of freedom fighters who went before. Lenin – with all of his accomplishments and insights, all of his mistakes and heroic efforts – is among the freedom fighters we should look to.” Absolutely.
